A few days ago the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property (IP Commission) released their anti-piracy recommendations to the U.S. Government.

In a 89-page report, with a strong focus on China, the commission describes how this “theft” impacts the U.S. economy, and suggests what can be done to fight it.

The IP Commission starts with describing the scope of the problem, which they believe amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars.

“The annual losses are likely to be comparable to the current annual level of U.S. exports to Asia—over $300 billion. The exact figure is unknowable, but private and governmental studies tend to understate the impacts due to inadequacies in data or scope,” the report reads.

Because of online piracy and other forms of IP-theft, the commission believes that the U.S. economy is currently missing out on million of jobs. In addition, they note that the threat to innovation significantly degrades quality of life for Americans.